Fire! The walls crackled as the hungry flames engulfed the house. Martha jerked awake as smoke billowed around her tiny bedroom. “Jane! Wake up, Wake up! Fire!” She screamed in panic as she shook her little sister awake. “Quick!” She screamed,  “We've got to get out!” Jane groggily groped around. “Where is my teddy?” demanded Jane tearfully. Martha yanked her little sister off the bed and pulled her towards the door. There was smoke everywhere. Martha's heart was pounding as she pulled a tearful Jane across the living room towards the front door. They could just make it. All of a sudden Jane dashed back “I want my teddy!” she sobbed as she reentered the blazing bedroom. Martha dashed back after the tiny figure of her little sister. By now it was too late to try and get out. Martha held Jane's shoulders and looked into her tearful eyes. “Jane, people will come for us. Don't be afraid.” She thrust the little figure on to the floor and lay down on top of her.

When the firefighters managed to douse the flames and enter the house, they found the burnt body of a young girl on the bedroom floor. To their shock, they found a little girl sobbing underneath, preserved from the ravaging fire by the body of her sister lying on top of her.

The names have been changed but the story is real. Jane, now an old woman still relives the event. Her eyes fill up as she recollects “She felt I was valuable enough to die for.”

This kind of sacrificial love resonates within us. In a world where there are myriad voices telling us how we do not measure up or matter, there is something so right about Martha and Jane's story.

When I first heard the story I was deeply moved. I was immediately reminded of God's love for us. However, in the lord Jesus' case there are some differences. It was not an accident but a deliberate act. Neither was the love shown just to good people. What then was the case?

It is this. If we look all around, we see brokenness, we see walls, we see strife, we see evil, we see oppression. Acts of genuine love are few and far between. Something is wrong with society. However, society is made up of individuals and on closer inspection we can see that there is something wrong with individuals that contributes to the brokenness around. The reason is a defiled heart. The Lord Jesus taught “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. These are what defile a man…” (Matthew 15:19,20). Our conscience bears testimony to the defilement within. Urges in our hears are the seeds of the action. They point to a malady within us. At the root of our being, there is something wrong.

It has not always been this way. When God created everything, He created it good. When we create something, like a painting, it can stay that way, unchanged – for a while at least before it decays. But then the painting has no life. It has no power to move away from one state to another. In our case, God made us volitional, He gave us choices. We could choose to do things God's way or choose to say no! This design was inescapable because love can never be forced or coerced. It requires a free agent to love. The sad history of man is a testimony to man's rebellion. We chose to walk away from God in the pursuit of our lusts and fantasies. The fallout is the evil we see around us. The Bible says that there is a penalty for all of this and the penalty is death.

It was into this “burning issue” that the Lord Jesus stepped in to shield us from the flames of hell. He thought we were worth dying for. He paid a debt that He did not owe, because we owed a debt that we could not pay. He bore our penalty because He loves us. Are you seeking a change in your life? Has your pursuit of pretty rainbows led you into the netherworld of sin and compromise? Do you want an out? God's love calls out to you. Will you turn back to Him? He calls out to all of us who labour under the burden of guilt to freely receive His pardon. He thought you were worth dying for.